Getty Tom Brady took some heat from former NFL star pass rushers this week.
Two former NFL linebackers, Tedy Bruschi and Ryan Shazier, voiced their displeasure over Tom Brady‘s defensive slam this week.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback made some light-hearted but controversial comments about NFL defenses during “The Manningcast” on Monday Night Football. Brady started the rant amid a Seattle Seahawks defensive breakdown against New Orleans.
“Have you ever been in some of those defensive meeting rooms? You wonder why the play defense, and after about two minutes, you go, ‘yep, they could never be an offensive player,” Brady told former NFL quarterback greats Peyton and Eli Manning. “Defense is like … a dog chasing a car. Just get the guy the guy with the ball.”
“Obviously we’ve got a lot of great defensive players,” Brady added.
Bruschi, a former teammate of Brady’s and two-time All-Pro, tweeted out his dislike for the comment — though with a humorous tone. Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier took a much stronger stance in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.
“That one got me, Shazier, a two-time Pro Bowler whose career was cut short by injury, told Yahoo! Sports according to Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Owens. “I respect him. I think he’s the greatest quarterback in NFL history.”
“For him to be that good, I think it’s kind of disrespectful to a lot of the players he’s played before in his past,” Ownes added. “Obviously everybody’s not Tom Brady. I just feel that — for somebody to say that, that’s basically like saying guys on the defensive side of the ball aren’t intelligent enough to play offense. I would beg to differ.”
“I feel like a lot of guys on the defensive side of the ball that chose to be on defense because, obviously, they like hitting people. But also that they might be really good at diagnosing or understanding plays as well. For him to be somebody that knows the game of football so well, I thought that was a little ignorant.”
Brady Expects Challenge From Saints Defense
Brady switched from banter mode to talking up the challenge of the Saints defense later in the week when the Bucs visit the Superdome on Sunday. He hasn’t experienced an easy outing against the Saints since joining the Bucs whether in Florida or the Big Easy.
“They do a good job of kind of protecting the deep part of the field,” Brady told the media on Thursday. “I think they make it very difficult on you to continue to move the ball effectively and efficiently. They have a lot of continuity in their secondary. Their linebackers are very athletic; they draft very athletic linebackers, they sign very athletic linebackers. They have a very big defensive line. And they have, obviously, really good coaches, a really good coordinator, so everything is a challenge.”
New Orleans allows 16.8 points and 346.3 yards of total offense.
Brady Anticipating Crowd Noise
Brady certainly expects one of the noisier road games of the season on Sunday in the Superdome. The last time the Bucs played indoors, they lost 34-24 in Los Angeles on Sept. 26.
“People underestimate how crowd noise plays a factor just in the overall commination of things,” Brady told the Mannings. “If you get 60-70 plays in a game (and) if seven of them are miscommunicated, that’s 10% of the game that you’ve to pretty much struggle to overcome.”